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Stone Voices Special Feature

The newest issue (Summer 2012) of Stone Voices features a new section called Art Exhibition and Literary Showcase. For this exhibition’s theme, “Inspired by Joy,” Editor Christine Brooks Cote says: “Artists and writers were encouraged to submit works that were inspired by joy or were intended to inspire joy in others, and, of course, were also related in some way to art or creative expression.” While only the top submissions are featured in the print issue, the complete selection of the exhibition can be see online at Stone Voice‘s webpage.

New Lit on the Block :: Glassworks

Glassworks is an ecclectic biannual of writing: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, interviews, craft essays, and new media: photography, paintings, photo essays, graphic fiction, video, audio (spoken; no music), and animations. Is that all? “Surprise us!” say the editors.

Available in print, with a digital new-media issue, and eZine, the December issue of Glassworks is a “regular” issue with May offering themed content.

Managing Editor Manda Frederick and Editor in Chief Ron Block started Glassworks as part of Rowan University’s Master in Writing Arts Graduate Program. “For a graduate program,” Frederick says, “it is important to have a literary journal to provide professional development for students and to supplement the purpose and quality of a program.”

In support of this mission, readers of Glassworks can expect to find variety of “current and interesting new-media content rarely published in other online journals, smart writing about craft, and a variety of poetry and prose from writers all over the globe. Moreover,” Frederick tells me, “our magazine’s aesthetic is built on the tenor and metaphor of the glass working industry (we are located in Glassboro, NJ, which was established as a glass working town). We value an attention to craft and aesthetic beauty.“

Glassworks first full issue, Spring 2012, features works by Robert Wrigley, Oliver de la Paz, Suzanne Paola, James Grabill, Andrew Lam, and more.

As for the future of the publication, the editors comment: “Next year is an exciting year for us. We will publish a general print issue, a digital new-media issue, and a themed issue (next year’s theme: utility and beauty). We are also going to publish an ‘apprentice’ issue that will be created out of community outreach, getting writing from our immediate community. You’ll also see us debut our magazine at AWP in Boston 2013. Moreover, Glassworks will, for the first time, be a graduate class. So the graduate students will be hard at work creating additional content for the magazine including interviews, blogs, and more.”

Glassworks is currently open for submissions with full information found on the publication’s website.

Stunning Covers :: J&L Illustrated

While I see many beautiful publications that come through NewPages, occasionally there is still a lit mag or book cover that I find ‘stunning’ enough to post on the blog. This time around, the stunning visual appeal is one that extends beyond the cover. J&L Illustrated introduced itself to us with issue #3 – which comes not only with a florescent orange and black cover, but florescent orange on the page edges all the way around (thankfully NOT on the text pages themselves throughout, which are instead a high quality black and white offset).

From the looks of the previous issues of J&L Illustrated, this colored edge is a signature of their publication, and one I find highly unique and eye-catching. Add to that the 5×7 format with 256 pages, and this mag has a nice, light ‘chunky’ feel that’s easy to tote, grab, and – thanks to the coloration – find in any bag or stack.

As for the content itself, this issue, edited by Paul Maliszewski, features drawings by Shoboshobo and 13 short stories by authors Amie Barrodale, Scott Bradfield, Stephen Dixon, Steve Featherstone, William H. Gass, Michael Martone, Joseph McElroy, Elizabeth Miller, Robert Nedelkoff, Hasanthikia Sirisena, Steve Stern, Mike Topp and Xiaoda Xiao.

Welcome to NewPages J&L Illustrated – nice to meet you!

The Pinch Literary Award Winners

Sponsored by The Hohenberg Foundation, The Pinch Literary Awards in Fiction and Poetry Winners 2011 appear in the newest issue of The Pinch (Spring 2012):

Fiction – Judged by Rick Bass

1st Place: Judith Edelman – “A Skiff of Snow”

2nd Place: James O’Brien – “Bing Red”

3rd Place: Stuart Dearnley – “Not Sleeping with the New Girl”

Poetry – Judged by Jeffrey McDaniel

1st Place: Claudine R. Moreau – ”Father-in-Law in His Tighty-Whities.”

2nd Place: John Sibley Williams – “Description of the Sky.”

New Lit on the Block :: The Boiler Journal

The Boiler Journal is a new online quarterly of poetry, fiction and nonfiction edited by Sebastian Paramo, William Derks, Carly Susser, Sarah Levine, and Caitlin Bahrey whose goal in starting a new literary magazine is “to promote unheard voices.” They hope to provide their readers with “quality literature of stuff you’ve never heard of before.”

The first issue of The Boiler Journal features works by Jessica Ankeny, G. Taylor Davis, Adam Chambers, Kevin Pilkington, Sophia Starmack, Justine Haus, and Jean Kim.

Editors say future plans for The Boiler Journal are to publish an annual best-of chapbook each year and continue growing from there.

Undiscovered Voices Scholarship

Call For Applications for the 2013 Undiscovered Voices Scholarship. The Writer’s Center seeks promising writers earning less than $25,000 annually to apply. This scholarship program will provide complimentary writing workshops to the selected applicant for a period of one year, but not to exceed 8 workshops in that year. The recipient is expected to use the year to make progress toward a completed manuscript of publishable work. Previous winners include Gimbiya Kettering (2012), Lee Kaplan (2011), and Susan Bucci Mockler (2010). Deadline: June 30, 2012.

World Literature Today Readers’ Choice Awards

Now in its 85th year of publication, if you haven’t yet taken a look at World Literature Today, here’s a great way to both introduce yourself to it and catch up. To celebrate its 350th issue, WLT conducted a readers’ choice contest, and below is the winners and runners-up from the shortlist of staff favorites in essays, poetry, short fiction, interviews, and book reviews from the past 10 years of WLT. Over 700 readers voted in their online poll, so you can bet these selections come highly recommended (and all are available full-text online):

Essays
Winner: Aleš Debeljak, “In Praise of the Republic of Letters” (March 2009)
Runner-up: George Evans, “The Deaths of Somoza” (May 2007)

Poetry
Winner: Paula Meehan, “In Memory, Joanne Breen” (January 2007)
Runner-up: Pireeni Sundaralingam, “Language Like Birds” (November 2008)

Short Fiction
Winner: Mikhail Shishkin, “We Can’t Go On Living This Way,” tr. Jamey Gambrell (November 2009)
Runner-up: Amitava Kumar, “Postmortem” (November 2010)

Interviews
Winner: Jazra Khaleed interviewed by Peter Constantine (March 2010)
Runner-up: Pireeni Sundaralingam interviewed by Michelle Johnson (March 2009)

Book Reviews
Winner:Warren Motte, review of How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, by Pierre Bayard (March 2008)
Runner-up: Issa J. Boullata, review of Sadder Than Water, by Samih al-Qasim (September 2007)

New Lit on the Block :: Devilfish Review

Available online quarterly, Devilfish Review publishes fiction and flash fiction, with a preference for literary science fiction and fantasy.

When asked about their motivation for starting up a new literary magazine, Editors Sarah McDonald and Cathy Lopez comment, “It’s a bit daunting to think of why to start a new publication. There are plenty of places out there where we could go to read stories we like. But we wondered, what were we missing? What if there were stories out there that we would love that weren’t being published? That just wouldn’t do. We prefer to take science fiction, fantasy, and things of the odd persuasion, because these are the sorts of stories that entertain us. In turn, readers can expect well-written entertaining stories that will stick with them long after reading.”

Contributors in the first issue include Amber Burke, Julie Wakeman-Linn, Katherine Horrigan, Kimberly Prijatel, Alonzo Tillison, Kenneth Poyner, Adrienne Clarke, Jessica Hagemann, Jason Newport, and Christopher Woods.

Going forward, McDonald says, “Our short term goal is to grow to a monthly publication. Our longer term goal is to be in a place where we can pay our contributors, because we would be literally nothing without them. Ultimately, Devilfish Review hopes to grow into Devilfish Press and expand into book publishing.“

Devilfish Review is currently looking for fiction and flash fiction with submissions accepted via Submittable.

Hayden’s Ferry on Artifacts

To celebrate Hayden’s Ferry Review‘s 25th anniversary, the eidtors put out a call for “artifact” submissions. The current issue, Spring/Summer 2012, explores the “artifacts” the editors discovered in the process – “literally and figuratively.”

Included in the issue is a section of “Writer Artifacts.” This features notebook entries, poem drafts, photographs, and playful writing from Aimee Bender, Susann Cokal, H.E. Francis, Elizabeth Graver, Ilya Kaminsky, Michael Martone, Stanley Plumly, Jim Shepard, and G.C. Waldrep. “They are reminders both of the inspiration behind – and the work of – writing.”

New Lit on the Block :: 3QR: The Three Quarter Review

According to Editor Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson, 3QR: The Three Quarter Review publishes “Poetry & Prose > 75 Percent True” as well as photography, video, and audio “that tells stories with a twist.”

This new literary annual is available online and in the future will be made available in paper copies. 3QR News also offers a literary blog that features their writers’ ongoing work as well as issues related to genre-crossover writing.

Simpson tells me that “3QR: The Three Quarter Review is a unique literary project and online journal featuring the mostly true work of such writers as Stephen Dixon, Jessica Anya Blau, Marilyn L. Taylor, and others. The inaugural issue offers poetry, essays, and prose pieces that are at least three-quarters fact. Our writers stretch out, capturing the essence of realist writing without the censorship of categories (Is it fiction? Is it nonfiction? What is truth?). There’s no betrayal for readers, who are often left wondering about the infallibility of memory or observation; or, in fiction, whether some things ‘really happened.’ 3QR instead creates a Fifth Genre: The Three Quarter True Story. Readers can expect to find compelling essays, stories, memoir, and poetry that capture the essence of truth in storytelling.”

Contributors to the first issues include Stephen Dixon, Jessica Anya Blau, Marilyn L. Taylor, Edward Perlman, Charles Talkoff, B.J. Hollars, Philip Sultz, Dario DiBattista, Ann Eichler Kolakowski, Jennifer Holden Ward, and Brandi Dawn Henderson.

Future plans for 3QR: The Three Quarter Review include adding digital storytelling features, including photo essays, video, and music. Updates on 3QR News will include a listing of readings, panel discussions, and other live events related to the journal and theme.

3QR is now accepting submissions for their Winter issue via traditional mail only (though editors communicate electronically once a piece is accepted). Remember: Submissions must be at least 75 percent true.

RHINO Editors’ Prize Winners

Every year the Editors of RHINO Poetry select works that have had the greatest impact on them and give cash awards for First, Second, and Third Place winners. Beginning in 2013, the First Place winner will be nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

2012 Editors’ Prize Winners
First Prize: Sean Howard – “shadowgraph 44: observation appears as an event”
Second Prize: Kevin Simmonds – “Salt (a suicide meditation)”

Honorable Mentions:
Shadab Zeest Hashimi – “I look out the Mughal window”
Seth Oelbaum – “Female Stockings (Elizabethan Sonnet)”

All of these poems are available in PDF format on the Rhino website.

Native Arts & Cultures Foundation 2013 Artist Fellowships

The NACF Fellowships are open to artists who demonstrate excellence, having made a significant impact in their discipline, earned respect from their colleagues, and achieved recognition in the field. The artists work must be evolving and current. Awards are $20,000 and will be made in six disciplines: Visual Arts; Filmmaking; Music; Dance; Literature; Traditional Arts. Deadline June 21, 2012.

New Lit on the Block :: The Cossack Review

Edited by Christine Gosnay and Ruben Quesada, The Cossack Review is a tri-annual publication of new fiction, poetry, original translations, creative nonfiction, essays, photography, illustrative art, and reviews. The Cossack Review can be read online (PDF, Kindle) or in print as of Issue 2 (due out October 1) with additional online content.

Gosnay explains that the name of the publication is a historical reference: “The appearance of Cossacks – Slavic peoples, often mounted on horseback, militaristic, proud, flawed, and complicated – in Russian literature has always fascinated me. Their appearance as confounding, almost mythic characters who ride in, seize, disturb, take note, and then return to their land was explored by Gogol, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Tsvetaeva and many other writers. Naming the journal The Cossack Review is a nod to the quality of power, troubled mythos, unsettling beauty, and quest for understanding that great writing imparts to its readers.”

With such a strong historical connection to literature, Gosnay says she started The Cossack Review as a way to continue this tradition: “As a reader of literary journals and magazines who has often known the unique joy of discovering a poem or short story that reveals something I never knew about the world, I wanted to build a journal that could focus on just that – showcasing exceptional new writing that delights, and that uncovers truths about our shared experience. Issue 1 showcases beautiful, surprising poetry and fiction that is rich with imagery, pathos, humor, and psychological understanding. Stories that you wouldn’t believe, that make you read twice. Nonfiction that understands you, that can relate and teach, and is enhanced by stunning photography to accompany the writing.”

The inaugural issue of The Cossack Review features poetry by Paul David Adkins, Maureen Alsop, Jacob Cribbs, Adam Crittenden, Oliver de la Paz, William Doreski, Teneice Durrant Delgado, Brian Gatz, Anne Haines, T.R. Hummer, Russell Jaffe, Lindsey Lewis Smithson, Linda Martin, Charles McCrory, Kristina Moriconi, John Palen, John Phillips, Tim Suermondt, José-Flore Tappy, and Eric M.R. Webb; fiction by Soren Gauger, Kimberly Hatfield, Bryan Jones, Olive Mullet, Patty Somlo, and David Swykert; and nonfiction by Robert Boucheron, Valery Petrovskiy, Phillip Polefrone, and Apryl Sniffen.

Gosnay and Quesada have great plans for the journal, which will go into print on October 1, 2012 with the launch of Issue 2. It will be featured in bookstores around the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. On off-months, they will be featuring an online supplement. The Cossack Review staff is also looking forward to attending the AWP 2013 Conference in Boston and starting a reading series as well in the new year.

Submissions are accepted year-round for print editions of the journal as well as the online supplements. The editors encourage you to send in your best unpublished poetry, fiction, and nonfiction via Submittable. Simultaneous submissions are welcome.

The Cossack Review is also looking to bring on a fiction editor soon and welcomes inquiries if you are interested in becoming a submissions reader for their journal.

Fiddlehead Contest Winners

Fiddlehead #251 (Spring 2012) includes the winning entries of their 21st Annual Contest:

Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize
Jim Johnstone, “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”

Poetry Honorable Mention: Michael Londry, “Before my Nephew Hiked” and Micahel Quilty, “Leaving the Gym”

Short Ficiton First Prize
Cody Klippenstein, “We’ve Gotta Get out of Here”

Fiction Honorable Mention: Valerie Spencer, “The Amaretto” and Kevin A. Couture, “How to Rescue a Bear Cub”

Books :: Children’s Picturebooks

In Children’s Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling, Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles introduce readers to the world of children’s picturebooks, providing a solid background to the industry while exploring the key concepts and practices that have gone into the creation of successful picturebooks.

In seven chapters, this book covers the key stages of conceiving a narrative, creating a visual language and developing storyboards and design of a picturebook. The book includes interviews with leading children’s picturebook illustrators, as well as case studies of their work. The picturebooks and artists featured hail from Australia, Belgium, Cuba, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, the UK and the USA. The authors close the book by considering e-publication and the future of children’s picturebooks.

Published by Laurence King Publishing, this gorgeous paperback is 192 pages and packed with 300 full-color illustrations throughout. Readers who remembers their own childhood picturebook favorites will not be able to put this book down. See the book website for a full table of contents and ordering information.

Natasha Trethewey Named Poet Laureate 2012-2013

On June 7, 2012, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today announced the appointment of Natasha Trethewey as the Library’s Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2012-2013. Natasha Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi on April 26, 1966. She is the author of four poetry collections and a book of creative non-fiction. Her honors include the Pulitzer Prize and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2012, she was appointed the State Poet Laureate of Mississippi.

Poetry: Jennifer K. Sweeney

Call and Response
by Jennifer K. Sweeney

There are mnemonics for remembering bird calls.
Listen to my evening sing-ing-ing-ing croons the vesper sparrow,
But-I-DO-love you pleads the Eastern meadowlark
or the Inca dove’s bleak no-hope.
That fall, an American goldfinch frequented our trumpet tree
with its airy Po-ta-to chip! and I thought
how our bodies exude their own churling mantras:
in the past, I-am-no-good
then, please-just-breathe just-breathe.
. . .
[Read the rest here in Sweet: A Literary Confection.]

Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize Winners

The newest issue of Missouri Review features the winners of the 2011 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize Contest:

Fiction: Yuko Sakata of Madison, WI, for “Unintended”

Poetry: David Kirby of Tallahassee, FL

Essay: Peter Selgin of Winter Park, FL, for “The Kuhreihen Melody”

A full list of finalists (some of whom were also included in this issue) is available on the Missouri Review website.

The Future of Light Quarterly

Press release from Lisa Markwart, Executive Director, Foundation for Light Verse, which publishes Light Quarterly:

John Mella

A doubly-sad note has sounded this spring in the world of light verse. The founding editor of the humorous verse journal Light Quarterly died this past spring at the age of seventy. For twenty years John Mella, a quirky, brilliant, prescient and uniquely inspired man, toiled almost singlehandedly to publish the only print magazine exclusively devoted to light verse. An accomplished writer himself, having published the luminous and philosophical meta-fiction novel Transformations in 1976, he had a genius for memorizing and reciting poetry, and could rattle off a 25-page poem without a mistake at the drop of a hat.

Amusing poetry, both free-form and metrical, has undergone a diminution in publishing outlets since the 1950’s, (though it remains popular with audiences and even turns a profit in Britain and other countries outside the U.S.). Says X. J. Kennedy, one of the master stylists of light verse: “…he saved a whole genre of poetry that was wilting and drying up for lack of any outlet for it.”

The next issue of Light Quarterly, which may be the last, will be a memorial issue dedicated to the memory of John Mella and the legacy of light verse he has left. It features some of his own work, and shows how wide his boundaries within the genre extended. He believed “light” verse could be applied to dark topics as well as frivolous, it could be about anything, even the death of a child, as he once remarked.

There will be tribute to John Mella at the West Chester Poetry Conference, at West Chester University in PA. On Saturday, June 9th at 8:15 a.m. a panel of three, led by Melissa Balmain will speak about his life and the legacy of Light Quarterly; it is free and open to the public.

Light Quarterly itself is now threatened with extinction due to the diminished size of its following and lack of funding. The Foundation for Light Verse (the parent organization behind the magazine) is sending out signals into the literary universe, seeking help in the form of either a generous donor(s), or an offer from a university to take over the publishing of Light Quarterly.

We hope, through some miracle of literary/interplanetary convergence, to continue to publish the best light verse writers, not only X. J. Kennedy, but also Edmund Conti, J. Patrick Lewis, Charles Ghigna, Joyce LaMers, Alicia Stallings and many other new, emerging writers.

The goals of The Foundation for Light Verse and its publication, Light Quarterly, are to bring clarity, wit, readability, and enjoyment in the reading of poems through the use of cadence, rhythm, and rhyme, and to promote the learning of such poems by heart.

Lisa Marwart can be reached via e-mail: lisa.markwart(at)lightquarterly(dot)org

2012 String Poet Prize Winners

The winners of the 2012 String Poet Prize, as chosen by final judge Kim Bridgford, are available in the newest online issue, String Poet Volume II Issue I.

First Prize: “Upkeep” – J.D. Smith

Second Place: “The Strauses Return to Broadway” – Patricia Brody

Third Place: “Palimpsest: Fez” – Maxine Silverman

Honorable Mentions: “Mourning at the Kaldi Café” – Carol Louise Munn and “The Taste of Tea” – Muriel Harris Weinstein

The 2012 String Poet Prize Award Ceremony is available in an online video.

High Desert Music

The newest issue of High Desert Journal – which always keeps its focus on ‘witnessing and celebrating the world through the work of writers and artists from across the West and across the country’ – includes a couple of great features that caught my eye as I skimmed the issue. One is a look at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering by Linda Hussa, which includes an online HDJ Extra of Hussa reading her poem “Homesteaders, Poor and Dry” and an interview she gave to Lisa M. Hamilton from Real Rural. The other – and I really have to thank HDJ for introducing me to this musician – is an interview by Charles Finn with singer and songwriter Martha Scanlan. The photo image of Scanlan and her accompanist recording out in the field of her ranch in Montana is what first drew me in. In addition to the interview, there is also an HDJ Extra of Martha Scanlan’s Tongue River Stories online.

NEW! Screen Reading: Online Literary Magazine Reviews

Check out Screen Reading a new column of reviews of online literary magazines by the NewPages Literary Magazine Review Editor Kirsten McIlvenna. “In an effort to ‘give more love’ to online magazines – which are fabulous but often don’t get as much attention,” McIlvenna says, “this weekly column will introduce readers to some good writing and places to submit work. This week’s column features writers that know how to create snapshots and reveal stories, emotions, and inspiration in a ‘limited’ amount of space, showing that even something small can have great impact. As the editor of Shot Glass says: ‘It is far more difficult to capture a message in fewer words and still have an effect on a reader.’” Online magazines reviewed include Shot Glass Journal, The Molotov Cocktail, and Short, Fast, and Deadly. Check out the reviews on Screen Reading, and keep an eye out for more to come!

Law Enforcement Poets

Just out, Rattle #37 features a selection of poems by fourteen law enforcement officers. “One might not expect any similarity between policing and poetry,” the editors write, “but with reams of paperwork, plenty of drama, and a need for attention to fine detail, poets and cops do have much in common.” And as retired police officer James Fleming explains in his introduction, “a sparse, carefully-written police report can evoke tears.”

Included in Law Enforcement Poets:

James Fleming “Cops on the Beat” (essay)
Madeline Artenberg “Guardians of the Good”
Barbara Ann Carle “Shots Fired”
Sarah Cortez “The Secret”
Betty Davis “Fred Astaire and Betty Davis”
James Fleming “Working Homocide”
Jesse S. Fourmy “Duluth”
Hans Jewinski “Blue Funk”
Suzanne Kessler “Mercy”
Dean Olson “Yellow Sailboat”
David S. Pointer “Hooverites and Jarhead MPs”
John J. Powers “Proof of Service”
G. Emil Reutter “Shoulders”
Vance Voyles “After”
William Walsh “The Old Me”
Sarah Cortez “More Cops on the Beat” (essay)

New Lit on the Block :: Educe Journal

Educe Journal is an online quarterly of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid/visual artist showcase. Edited by Matthew R. K. Haynes, Eudice Journal is available in print, PDF, ePub, and iPad reading formats.

Haynes says the motivation for publishing Educe Journal is a commitment to “showcasing visual artists and publishing innovative literary fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction by established and emerging writers from the queer community.” With “Queer = Other,” he adds.

In each issue, readers can expect to find up to 100 pages of quality fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as one visual artist who dons the covers with a mid-issue spread.

Contributors to the first issue include Richard Atwood, Steven Matthew Brown, Charles Casey, Ezra Dan Feldman, Reed Hearne, TT Jax, Thomas Kearnes, Sarah Merkle, John Pluecker, Heather Stewart, Vicente Viraym, and Visual Artist Eleanor Leonne Bennett.

Haynes hopes that Educe Journal will make its mark as a continuing quarterly queer literary journal. And while he hopes Educe Journal will have more of a presence in the print community, the publication is “committed to the efficiency and environmental advantages of being an e-publication viewable on any computer and specifically slated for the Apple iPad.”

Educe Journal is looking for LITERARY fiction/nonfiction/poetry submissions from queer folk across the Globe with multicultural submissions encouraged. Educe Journal is also interested in submissions from visual artists as each issue will feature one artist, whose work will be used for the cover. The deadline for submissions is ongoing; see the publication website for more details.

All We Are Saying, Is Give Alts a Look

Writers looking for unique venues for your work? Readers looking to broaden your repertoire? If you haven’t ever been to the NewPages Guide to Alternative Magazines, then I would strongly recommend you give it a look.

In working with the publications, I am often taken in by a story I see on their site or in the print magazine. This is writing on contemporary issues in our culture and around the globe, often times including personal essay as a way to convey experience and meaning to the reader. Many alternative magazines also include more “literary” genres of writing: fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, as well as art. There is a wealth of opportunity here for writers that all too often may be overlooked since these magazines are not usually classed under literary genre markets.

I am also amazed at how many of the print alternative publications offer so much content online, some of them offering full content once the next issue of the publication is available. Of course, the fully online publications offer full content as well as archives. Time and again, I have encouraged my teaching colleagues in all disciplines to check out these guides. At a time of skyrocketing costs for our students to attend college, finding “free” resources such as these is a boon. The magazines, in turn, will gain new readers, perhaps new subscribers, but more importantly, an audience that becomes more informed on social, cultural, and political issues of concern. And isn’t that what alts are all about?

Swing by today and click a couple links. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. And as always, if you know of a publication that fits the scope of our work here that is not listed, drop me a line (denisehill-at-newpages-dot-com) and I’ll look into it!

New Lit on the Block :: Thrush Poetry Journal

Thrush Poetry Journal is published by Thrush Press electronically bi-monthly (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep & Nov) with a print annual “Best of.” Thrush Press also offers select poetry chapbooks and other poetry ephemera that the editors find of interest.

Founder and  Editor in Chief Helen Vitoria started Thrush Poetry Journal “to provide a place where great poets and amazing poetry are featured in an elegant, simple design, without any distractions.” She is joined in this mission by Associate Editor and Web Designer Walter Bjorkman in providing readers with “the best poetry available to us.”

Some contributors to Thrush Poetry Journal include Maureen Alsop, Hélène Cardona, Cindy Goff, Nathalie Handal, Anna Journey, Ada Limón, Rachel McKibbens, Sheila Nickerson, Amber Tamblyn, and Ocean Vuong.

Wolff Translator’s Prize Winner 2012

Dalkey Archive Press has announced that translator Burton Pike has been awarded the Goethe-Institut’s prestigious Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his translation of Gerhard Meier’s Isle of the Dead, the first title in Dalkey Archive’s ongoing Swiss Literature Series. Video of Dr. Pike reading from his translation at New York’s Center for Fiction is available online at the Dalkey Archive website.

The Wolff Prize is awarded annually by the Goethe-Institut Chicago to honor an outstanding translation from German to English; each year’s winning translator receives $10,000. This is the second year in a row that the Wolff Prize has gone to a Dalkey Archive translator; Jean M. Snook’s translation of The Distant Sound, by Gert Jonke, received the award in 2011.

Burton Pike is among the leading translators of German literature into English, known for his translations of, among others, Goethe and Robert Musil. His translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge was published by Dalkey Archive in 2008.

Brevity Facelift – Same Great Content

Brevity has a slick new web design and solid content to back it up! This month features sixteen new flash essays, including work from Ander Monson, Patrick Rosal, Sean Prentiss, Jennifer Sinor, Gary Percesepe, with artwork by Marc Snyder. Brevity also features a writer’s best friend: craft essays. This month’s column explores the difference between an MFA thesis and a book (by Tabitha Blankenbiller), the pitfalls of writing about family (by Tarn Wilson), and an interview by Christin Geall with Kim Dana Kupperman.

Documentary :: Waterwalk

Waterwalk: A Journey of 1,000 Miles Might Bring Them Together

After Blue Lake, Michigan, newspaper editor Steve Faulkner is laid off, his 17 year-old son Justin could have easily stepped aside and watched his dad frantically search for another job. Instead he persuades his workaholic dad to join him on the trip of a lifetime, a 1,000 mile canoe journey retracing the Marquette/Joliet discovery route of the Mississippi. Together they travel along Lake Michigan’s northern shore, through Green Bay, up the Fox, down the WIsconsin and finally the mighty Mississippi.

Braving rough water, big storms, flood stage rivers and portaging larger sections of the heavily dammed Fox, the Faulkners nearly run out of money, become minor celebrities and confront the ultimate challenge presented to fathers who leave their jobs to spend more time with their children, boredom. Paddling hour after hour they discover that they don’t read the same books, watch the same movies and television shows or even know the same songs. Trying to kill time they end up singing the only music they both know, Christmas carols in July. A journey through middle America, Waterwalk is a memorable look at an archetypal journey that defines our nation and informs the heart.

[PR text from Waterwalk website]

New Lit on the Block :: Cactus Heart

Cactus Heart is a new PDF quarterly of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, photography, and art edited by Sara Rauch.

Rauch comments on starting Cactus Heart: “After being in publishing for six years, and a writer for at least double that time, I was inspired to create Cactus Heart as a new forum for engaging work. There are lots of great publications out there, and always more great writers looking to share their work. I wanted to create a literary magazine that felt like a community and a conversation. With all the changes going on in the publishing world, it finally felt possible for me to put together an e-literary magazine – a quality online publication filled with amazing work.”

Cactus Heart readers will be treated to “Spiny, succulent writing! They will find plenty of plot-driven, language-focused fiction, poems that blend images and thoughts seamlessly, deeply felt nonfiction, and full-color photography.”

Contributors in the first issue include Alysia Angel, Glen Armstrong, Eleanor Leonne Bennett, Christine Brandel, Stephanie Callas, Flower Conroy, Sian Cummins, erin feldman, Merlin Flower, Janet Freeman, Diana Gallagher, Christine Gosnay, William Henderson, Courtney Hill Wulsin, Jesse Kuiken, Anthony Lawrence, D Lep, Stewart Lewis, Nico Mara-McKay, Ben Nardolilli, Katrina Pallop, Carol Piva, Jules A Riley, Holly Ringland, Meegan Schreiber, Jenna Whittaker, Theresa Williams, and Christopher Woods.

Rauch hopes to add a print publication to the roster, and possibly move into book publishing as she continues her work with Cactus Heart.

Cactus Heart is currently accepting submissions for the second issue until August 1 – full guidelines are available on the publication website.

New Lit on the Block :: The Manila Envelope

Published quarterly in PDF format, The Manila Envelope features poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and art. While the full version is available only by subscription, selected works can be viewed online.

Literary Editor Cristina Querrer and Art Editor Tiana Madison started The Manila Envelope out of a desire “to present another avenue, another platform for writers and artists to publish their exquisite work.” The editors stress, “We want to offer a nurturing environment for everyone, from established or just-starting-out writers and artists. But we also adhere to our own aesthetic guidelines which can be eclectic. As we go along, read our issues, like us on Facebook, get to know us. The editors of The Manila Envelope are writers and artists too.”

Readers can expect the writing to follow a theme that runs through each issue in a variety of styles with the inaugural issue featuring poetry by Tobi Cogswell, Mark Harris, Andrew Mancuso and Mark Wisniewski; essays by S.C. Barrus, Julio Espin, Bennett Zamoff; and fiction by Stephanie Becerra, Larry Kostroff, Amy Meyerson, and Jeffrey Rubinstein.

Querrer and Madison say future plan for the publication are “to stay awhile and to perhaps be able to offer contest prizes or even a possible print anthology to even quite possibly different platforms and digital versions of our magazine.”

Submissions are accepted through Submittable on a rolling basis with accepted works published in the next available issue.

New Lit on the Block :: phren-Z

phren-Z is a quarterly online literary magazine published by Santa Cruz Writes. phren-Z promotes the work of writers with a connection to Santa Cruz County, California, publishing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays, monologues, essays, and interviews.

Editors Karen Ackland (fiction), Julia Chiapella (poetry), and Jory Post (non-fiction, plays, and monologues) started phren-Z “ to develop and sustain a vibrant literary community dedicated to the craft of writing and its ability to inform, reveal, and enchant.” As such, readers can find writing in all genres from both established and emerging writers with a connection to Santa Cruz County, California. The Floodlight section provides in depth coverage on a given topic – a specific writer, event, or other issue of significance to the local literary community.

“phren-Z is community oriented,” say the editors, “so each issue will feature a public reading of contributors work, read by the authors themselves. We also will continue to seek opportunities for writers to get their work in front of the public including, but not limited to, radio performances, community TV performances, and an annual printed edition.”

Works available for online reading include essays by Wallace Baine, Don Rothman, Karen Ackland, Sarah Albertson, Vinnie Hansen, Neal Hellman, and Stephen Kessler; poetry by Carolyn Burke, Farnaz Fatemi, Gary Young, Buzz Anderson, Anna Citrino, Arthur Streshly, and Amber Coverdale Sumral; fiction by Clifford Henderson, Micah Perks, Paul Skenazy, Elizabeth McKenzie and Paula Mahoney, an interview with Karen Tei Yamashita, a monologue by Wilma Marcus Chandler, and “Love Letters Project,” in which nine Santa Cruz authors participated in The Love Letters Project held at The Museum of Art and History (MAH), Bookshop Santa Cruz, and Felix Kulpa Gallery. Each writer was asked to contribute a poem or letter they had written for someone or something they love. Contributors include Wallace Baine, Lauren Crux, Stephanie Golino, Neal Hellman, Cheyenne Street Houck, Erin Johnson, Wincy Lui, Elizabeth McKenzie, and Alyssa Young.

Those wishing to submit can go to phren-Z’s Submit page. A link to Submittable will guide writers through the process.

Additionally, phren-Z is interested in exploring where and how writing intersects with other creative disciplines. The editors seek out events, performances, exhibitions, etc., that offer opportunities for writing within a creative context.

Mad Hatter Tribute to Carol Novack

Mad Hatters’ Review 13 is a tribute issue to founder and editor Carol Novack (1948-2011). The issue includes a number of her works as well as works by others in tribute to Carol. Editor Marc Vincenz (Reykjavik, Iceland) in his editor’s stateme writes of working with Carol, those final months which came too quickly, and the continuation of Mad Hatter ventures:

“I have heard whispers that a few of you of little faith believed that MadHat in all of its incarnations would never survive Carol—some, I understand, have questioned the viability of Mad Hatters’ Review without its revolutionary leader at the helm. Well, I hope with the advent of this tribute issue, that your doubts will have been swayed. MadHat will continue, and we shall strive to bring you more exuberant content than ever before. Long live MadHat! ¡Viva la Revolución!“

Big Bridge Celebrates 15

For 15 years Big Bridge has published a wide and varied selection of poetry, fiction, art, essays, and more. “And through this work,” comment the editors, “we hope we have conveyed our respect and love for all the great creative efforts of poets and artists we have known.” The 15th Anniversary Edition is a fine continuation of this work, including the Feature Chapbook “bridge work” by Andrei Codrescu with illustrations by Nancy Victoria Davis.

Also included are several edited sections:

30 POETS, a poetry anthology dedicated to Akilah Oliver

Big Tree Poems: An exploratory anthology of contemporary tree poems

Cuyahoga Burning, a feature on current Ohio literature, dedicated to Nobius Black

15th Anniversary Fiction Feature, multifaceted stories orchestrated around four themes

Translations:

Poetry from Japan, A Contemporary Anthology of Japanese Poetry

Voices for Change: A Contemporary Anthology of Moroccan Poets

A Tribute to Andrey Voznesensky (1933-2010)

Poetry Slam Guatemala

And a whole lot more! Visit Big Bridge to see full contents.

The New Flare

The Flagler Review, the journal of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, screenplays/plays, and artwork published by the students of Flagler University has undergone a slight name change, and will now be known as FLARE: The Flagler Review. “FLARE,” the editors write, will be “a new light in the literary world. We want our journal to engage the mind and be visited over and over. This is our journal’s chance to shine, to catch our readers’ attention with creative and original works that kindle the imagination.” FLARE is available in print in the fall and spring along with online features. [Pictured: cropped cover art “Artemis on the Hunt” by Brianna Angelakis]

YES! Magazine Student Essay Contest Winners

The YES! National Student Writing Competition gives students the chance to write for a real audience and be published by an award-winning magazine. Each quarter, students have the opportunity to read and respond to a selected YES! Magazine article.

For Winter 2012, participants read and responded to the YES! Magazine article, “What’s the Harm in Hunting?” by Alyssa Johnson. All of the winning essays are available full-text online.

Winter 2012 Writing Competition Winners

Middle School: Stro Hastings

High School: Johnny Bobo

College: Jenny Courtney

Powerful Voice: Lisa Schwartz

Conclave News

Conclave: A Journal of Character has announced several recent changes, including publishing the magazine on a bi-annual cycle as well making it available in e-format and including interviews. Conclave also wants to place literary journals in inner-city schools and libraries with help from supporters. Visit their website for more information on how you can help in their effort.

Glimmer Train :: March Fiction Open 2012

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their March Fiction Open competition; the Fiction Open competition is held quarterly. Stories generally range from 2000-6000 words, though up to 20,000 is fine. The next Fiction Open will take place in June. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: Silas Dent Zobal [pictured], of Freeburg, PA, wins $2500 for “The Hospital.” His story will be published in the Summer 2013 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Devin Murphy, of Buffalo Grove, IL, wins $1000 for “Levi’s Recession.” His story will also appear in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Third place: Amina Gautier, of Chicago, IL, wins $600 for “Aguanilé.” Her story will also be published in Glimmer Train Stories, increasing her prize to $700.

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Deadline soon approaching for the Short Story Award for New Writers: May 31
This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation over 5000. No theme restrictions. Most submissions to this category run 1500-6000 words, but can go up to 12,000. First place prize has been increased to $1500.

Sentence New Editor

Sentence: A Jounral of Prose Poetics (published by Firewheel Editions) welcomes Brian Johnson as its new editor with this year’s annual issue (#9). “I am naturally curious,” Johnson writes, “how the issue before you, Sentence 9, will relate to the eight that came before it. It will be different, of course, but whether that difference is subtle or radical I will leave to the judgment of those of you who have written for, read, and admired the journal since its debut in 2003.

Poetry: Comfort in Form

In the editor’s introduction to issue 17 of Spillway, themed “Crossing Boarders,” Susan Terris comments on the number of poetry submissions received “in exacting poetic forms.” She explains, “In these pages, you’ll find five sonnets. A sonnet, historically, is a little song; and you’ll see this volume is threaded with them, many more small songs of 10-16 lines. We also have a villanelle, a pantoum, several invented forms unique to particular poets. In addition, we have Asian forms of haiku, tanka, and haibun. Why all these poetic forms? I have a facile answer: the greater the danger (and all borders are fraught with danger), the more form works to add control and comfort to an out-of-control and uncomfortable world.”

Alligator Juniper Contest Winners – 2012

The newest issue of Alligator Juniper from Prescott College (AZ) features the winners from the publication’s annual writing and photography contest, as well as the winners of the Suzanne Tito Prize (a full list of finalists can be found on the website):

 
National Poetry Contest Winner
Elton Glaser, “Coupling on the Edge of Entropy”
Finalists: Christopher Buckley, Iris Marble Cushing, Marta Ferguson, Lexa Hillyer, Althea Rose Schelling
Suzanne Tito Prize Winner: Laura Hitt

 
National Creative Nonfiction Winner
Eli Connaughton, “Burial”
Finalists: Chris Guppy, Debra Marquart, Natalie Vestin
Suzanne Tito Prize Winner: Laura Hitt
 
National Fiction Winner
Janet Hilliard-Osborn, “Mycology”
Finalists: Veronica Castro, Julie Hensley, Michael Pearce, Josh Peterson, Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
Suzanne Tito Prize Winner: Molly Kiff

National Photography Winners
First Place Prizewinner: Morgan Neuharth
 
Second Place Prizewinner: Christine Weller
 
Third Place Prizewinner: Don Fike
 
Finalists: Morgan Neuharth, Christine Weller, Don Fike, Barbara Burghart-Perreault, Cloe Cox, Elektra Fike-Data, George Lewis, Dan Meylor, Arlene Minuskin, Seth Quigg, Amy Siqveland
 

New Lit on the Block :: Treehouse

Treehouse is a new online literary hub with weekly updates of creative nonfiction, fiction, short genre-benders and short screenplays or scenes.
The editors of Treehouse  hope their site “provides a place for new and established writers alike to exhibit writing that is brief in length, but interesting and unique in content” with a mission “to publish pleasingly unusual literature. Readers can find creative writing from new and established writers short enough to read on a coffee break, but good enough to linger over.”  Treehouse also publishes informative nonfiction about the contemporary literary scene.
Some current contributors include Roxane Gay, Kyle Minor, and Marie-Helene Bertino.
Treehouse editors plan, in addition to continuing weekly publications,  to add blog content, retrospectives regarding acclaimed writers, contests, and much more as they continue to grow.
Treehouse accepts submissions on a rolling basis via e-mail. All genres are accepted.

Hanging Loose 100

Begun in 1966, Hanging Loose magazine quietly celebrates 100 issues with its most recent publication.

First published as mimeographed loose pages in a cover envelope, inaugural contributors included Denise Levertov, John Gill, Jack Anderson, and Victor Contoski. As the publication continued, “the editors were in agreement that they were not interested in begging poems from famous writers but that they wanted to stress work by new writers and by older writers whose work deserved a larger audience. In 1968, the magazine introduced a feature which has become celebrated over the years, a regular section devoted to writing by talented high school writers.” This section printed early work by such writers as Evelyn Lau and Sam Kashner.

The loose-page format gave way to the bound edition we now celebrate, and features portfolios of work by a single artist or photographer.

Andrew Suknaski Memorial

Via Chaudiere Books:

A memorial/wake reading for the late prairie poet Andrew Suknaski (July 30, 1942 – May 3, 2012), the poet of Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan, will be held upstairs at The Carleton Tavern, 233 Armstrong Street (at Parkdale), Ottawa on Friday, June 1, 2012 at 7:30pm.

Hosted by rob mclennan, this informal gathering of friends, admirers, fans and otherwise well-wishers will feature readings of Suknaski’s own words as tribute by some of his friends

If you would like to say a few words about/for Suknaski, or have the opportunity to read a short selection from one of his works, email rob mclennan at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com.

For those inquiring about There Is No Mountain: The Selected Poems of Andrew Suknaski, edited by rob mclennan, it will be appearing later this year (thanks to a generous offer made to help offset production costs).

2012 Tusculum Review Winners

The newest issue of Tusculum Review includes the finalists and winners of their 2012 contest:

Fiction Prize, Final Judge Jaimy Gordon
Winner: Elizabeth Gonzalez
Finalists: Jacob M. Appel, Sean Lanigan, Shena McAuliffe

Poetry Prize, Final Judge Amy Gerstler
Winner: Jacqueline Berger
Finalists: Katie Cappello, Anna Marie Craighead-Kintis, Luisa A. Igloria, Leslie Williams

AQR Celebrates 30 with Photo Narratives

Alaska Quarterly Review celebrates 30 years of publishing with its Spring & Summer 2012 issue (v29 n1&2). Not to be missed in this issue is a stunning special feature: “Liberty and Justice (for all): A Global Photo Mosaic.” This special feature includes 68 photographers from 22 nations with both narratives and photo captions. Though some photos are black and white, the entire section is given full color, glossy paper with the photo receiving its own facing page to the text narrative. This is an impressive inclusion for any literary magazine to provide its readers, and the force of these images and text – running the gamut from hopeful to heart wrenching – is truly astonishing.